July 17, 2024

Goodwin contributed to Washington Sea Grant through various roles for nearly 50 years

We are sad to share the news of the passing of former Washington Sea Grant (WSG) staff member Bob Goodwin. Goodwin died on May 3, 2024 at his home in Wenatchee, Washington, after a year of fighting cancer. He was 86 years old. 

Family, friends and colleagues are invited to join for a celebration of Bob’s life at Wenatchee Confluence State Park on Sunday, August 11 at 2 p.m. 

Goodwin worked at WSG as a coastal resources specialist for 33 years before he retired in 2004. After his retirement, he continued to contribute to WSG by processing Department of Licensing data on boat sales for another 15 years. He also served on the WSG advisory committee. 

Goodwin first joined WSG for a summer job in 1972, when he was fresh out of his master’s degree program at the University of Washington. The WSG framework appealed to him: “I was not happy in a purely academic setting. I was not the kind of person who could sit in an office and write papers without having a foot in the outside world,” he once said. “Sea Grant really brought two worlds together—the external world of business and government and the academic world—in a more applied fashion than I had been pursuing in my studies.”

As a WSG coastal resources specialist, Goodwin worked on a wide spread of issues. Early on, with University of Washington (UW) colleague March Hershman, he developed the coastal resources component for the UW Institute of Marine Studies (which later became the School of Marine and Environmental Affairs). He also organized repositories of information and technical expertise for coastal managers and subsequently organized regular meetings for shoreline planners in Washington in collaboration with the Washington Department of Ecology. In 1977, he coordinated a multidisciplinary WSG research project on the economics of marine recreation in Washington state that would eventually lead him to his ongoing pursuit of data on boat sales and outreach to marina and port managers. 

In the early 1980s, waterfront revitalization became a central part of his career: for example, he and Marc Hershman organized the Seattle Waterfront Symposium, in which a panel of experts presented their vision for Seattle’s downtown waterfront. He and Oregon Sea Grant colleague Jim Good wrote a guidebook, Waterfront Revitalization for Small Cities, applying its principles to demonstration projects in Raymond, Washington and Warrenton, Oregon to bring new economic activity to their dilapidated wharves and adjacent waterfront lands.

Goodwin started collecting data from the Department of Licensing on the sales of new and used boats in 2002, when the state began to require that boaters register their vessels. He saw it as an opportunity to fill the information void on the size of the Washington boat fleet and the types of new vessels that were entering it. He continued to process this information in retirement until he passed the duties on to current WSG staff in 2019. 

Robyn Ricks, WSG creative director, worked with Goodwin often. “When I think of him, I think of his cheery disposition, his grin, and willingness to help,” she said.

Former WSG staff Pete Granger first met Goodwin in 1975, during WSG’s “fledgling years”, and enjoyed the quality of Goodwin’s work as well as his sense of humor. “The word ‘good’ in his name fit him to a tee!” Granger said. “His work with the boat sales data was crucial, since WSG as a public entity was a conduit for the boating industry to see this data without disclosing private sales from individual companies. Also, his work in Port Orchard and Sinclair Inlet raised the specter of tsunami inundation, based on historical research in that area, that is now showing how likely this event is to happen.”

Teri King, former WSG staff and current West Coast regional aquaculture coordinator at NOAA Fisheries, also shared fond memories of Goodwin. “I was fortunate enough to work with Bob in the ‘80s before I came to Washington Sea Grant and then when I became staff in 1990,” King recalled. “Bob was always willing to help guide me as I toiled in South Sound water quality issues. He patiently listened to my latest strategy about tackling a tough problem without judgment with unusual educational approaches such as ‘Septic Socials’. He also told it like he saw it, and didn’t hold back. In my work at NOAA, I still catch myself at times thinking ‘What would Bob do?’, then smile as I think of the good times we shared and the valuable lessons that he taught me about being a Sea Grant specialist.”

“In retirement in Omak, Washington, Goodwin was known as a capable, principled, and well-organized community volunteer and friendly neighbor, always eager to pitch in,” said friend and colleague Jim Good. “He and his wife Renee loved working their mini-farm and tending their animals—cats, dogs, and horses.”

Born, raised and schooled in England, Goodwin never lost his charming accent, and had a clever way with words. He especially loved puns.  He was an avid spelunker in his youth, served in the Royal Air Force in Germany, and came to the United States in his early 20s to work and study in Boston, and later study architecture and urban geography at the University of Washington. Then on to his outstanding career at Washington Sea Grant. 

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Washington Sea Grant, based within the College of the Environment at the University of Washington, helps people and marine life thrive through marine research, technical expertise and education supporting the responsible use and conservation of coastal ecosystems. The National Sea Grant College Program is a federal-state partnership of 33 programs nationwide within the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce. www.wsg.washington.edu.

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